When 69-year-old judge Len Goodman called his Strictly Come Dancing colleague, bisexual Craig Revel Horwood, a "silly little sod" on Saturday's show, it prompted a stern telling-off from host Bruce Forsyth. Then followed more than 600 viewer complaints and a swift, if grudging, apology. One viewer described the insult as "completely unacceptable". But is it?

The term certainly doesn't, as one online commenter suggested, mean simply "a bit of soil". Or rather, it can, as in the hymn Good King Wenceslas ("Heat was in the very sod …"), but not in the context in which Goodman used it.

Sod as an insult appears in the OED as an abbreviation of "sodomite", and its first definition is pejorative: "One who practises or commits sodomy." But its secondary use isn't inherently homophobic, and can even be a term of endearment, "2a. Used as a vulgar term of abuse for (usu.) a male person. Also with weakened force, as the equivalent of 'fellow', 'chap', freq. Affectionately or in commiseration."

In fact, sod has several non-pejorative uses. Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English cites: "Good on yer, Martha, yer old sod!" in a book from 1962, while urbandictionary.com's first entry on the word states: "The meaning 'sodomite' is a little old-fashioned. More typically it's used as a softer form of 'fool', 'idiot', or 'bastard'."

So there you have it: no apology necessary. Goodman wasn't being homophobic. He was just being a daft old sod.